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Encourage vs Coerce - What's the difference?

encourage | coerce |

As verbs the difference between encourage and coerce

is that encourage is to mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit while coerce is to restrain by force, especially by law or authority; to repress; to curb.

encourage

English

Verb

(encourag)
  • To mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit.
  • I encouraged him during his race.
  • To spur on, strongly recommend.
  • We encourage the use of bicycles in the town centre.
  • To foster, give help or patronage
  • ''The royal family has always encouraged the arts in word and deed

    Synonyms

    * (l) * (l)

    Antonyms

    * discourage

    Derived terms

    * encouragement * encouraging * encouragingly

    coerce

    English

    Verb

    (coerc)
  • To restrain by force, especially by law or authority; to repress; to curb.
  • to use force, threat, fraud, or intimidation in attempt to compel one to act against his will.
  • (computing) to force an attribute, normally of a data type, to take on the attribute of another data type.
  • Synonyms

    * compel * bully * dragoon

    Derived terms

    * coercion * coercer * coercee * coercible